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Brazeau disappears from cyberspace after arrest, jailing

Onetime Conservative senator Patrick Brazeau was all over the online media on February 6 and 7, but he has largely disappeared from government websites and the social media.

With his arrest on the 6th and his posting bail on the 7th, Brazeau's government web pages changed rapidly. His Senate biography now lists him as an Independent, but still notes that "Patrick was called to the Senate by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in December 2008."

His personal website lists his membership on two senate committees, those on aboriginal peoples and human rights, but he has disappeared from the pages listing committee members. The "Chamber Chat" blog on Brazeau's site does not appear to have been updated since November, 2010.

On the website of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, which Brazeau headed before his appointment to the Senate, a search for "Brazeau" turned up no hits.

Brazeau has been an energetic user of Twitter as @TheBrazman, but on Friday evening the last item was a supportive retweet on February 6. Most of his tweets on February 6 had in fact been retweets, both positive and negative. His last personal tweet, on February 6, included a promise to "report back tomorrow."

Meanwhile, others were tweeting about him at #brazman.

If Brazeau had disappeared from official government cyberspace, his Wikipedia page was very up to date on Friday night, with a note stating that "This article is about a person involved in a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses."

Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.


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